I liked this book. Well
organized and thought out, it outlines a new approach to marketing and PR,
using Web 2.0 tools. The old days of mass marketing and PR has been
replaced. Now it’s all about conversations, interaction, and appealing directly
to the user’s needs. You’d better give the customer the information they want,
when they want it—or kiss them goodbye.

My favorite part of the
book is where the author talks about how anyone can now be an online publisher,
even corporations. Chapter nine outlines the “content rich website” which will
undoubtedly replace the old marketing-driven website of the 1990s, with these
focusing on the viewer/reader. Other good chapters on “branding your company as
a trusted resource,” blogging to reach your buyers, and the usual stuff on wikis,
podcasting, and other web 2.0 tools.

David covers a lot of
strategic and practical ground. As the Amazon review puts it, this book,
“provides the technical novice a thoughtful and accessible guide to
cutting-edge media arenas and formats such as RSS, podcasts and viral
marketing, without neglecting the fact that technological wizardry can't
substitute for a well-thought out marketing program. This may even be a better
book than The New Influencers, which I also liked (see review).

Other noteworthy books
(which I’m either reading or will be reading soon):

Andy Beal writes a great
blog so this is bound to be a good book. Written for any marketer or PR
manager-or anyone—who has to deal with online reputations—whether you’re trying
to polish your company’s reputation, or someone has blasted you.

Reading The Wisdom of Crowds, it dawned on me: much of this could be applied to social media and the blogging world. The book speaks volumes as to why social media is exploding--and why the old media is dieing. It could also explain other related issues, such as why corporations are so slow to grasp this movement. On another level, the theories explain why some companies are so badly managed and why some small groups make such stunningly bad decisions. Author James Surowiecki wrote a wonderful book here, on par with The Tipping Point and Freakonomics--with even longer range implications.

On the face of it, the author's theme is simple, that large groups or "crowds" make better decisions under most conditions. It may appear odd--after all, we've been taught that that "average" is mediocre. We've also been led to glorify the "amazing individual"--the super CEO, the star quarterback and so on. But it turns out, with decision making, "the average can mean excellence." And our celebration of super individuals may be grossly misplaced.

The author starts by showing how study after study shows that large groups, on average, will guess, say, the weight of a cow or elephant much more accurately than any individual. Then he builds the case for how these decisions can come into play across government, business and other areas of our lives.

Crowds need four characteristics to be successful: diversity of opinion; independence (your opinions can't be determined by those around you); decentralization (people are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge); and aggregation (some mechanism exists for turning "private judgments" into collective decisions).

The New Influencers: a Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media. Solid book on the new social media, particularly for marketers, PR people and others in the communications profession trying to find their way. It could almost be a followup to ClueTrain Manifesto from a few years ago--but without the hard hitting edge (that took many swipes at the PR profession). This book describes how many marketers and PR folks are trying to make the switch into the new social media world. It's not a smooth transition. These people come out of a world where it's all about controlling the message, filtering every word, and focusing on pitching select media, led by a handful of big names like the Wall St. Journal, BusinessWeek and Fortune on the business print side. I'll talk more about the whole book later (I'm almost finished), but one of my favorite sections is entitled "Putting "Public" Back into Public Relations." Author Paul Gillin talks about the evolution away from the old days of courting and wining and dining reporters, to a new era of connecting with bloggers, podcasters, even directly with their audiences. The world has certainly changed, "Today a news story in a major newspaper may begin as a blog discussion or a viral e-mail thread that takes on a life of its own." There's a lightning rod statement on page 127, where he quotes Larry Weber, who runs his own integrated marketing company, and believes that companies are at a turning point, "one in which businesses have the opportunity to break out of their traditional roles as message makers and become legitimate publishers."

A new book on former Intel CEO and legend Andy Grove is out now ("Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American"), and appears to be worth the read. I'm still wading through the first few chapters, but it's clear the book is very thorough (written by a historian with full access to Grove), starting with his early days growing up amid the HOlocaust fears in Europe.

Grove, of course, made his name in the 80s and 90s as the combative,
visionary leader of Intel. Along the way as the book discusses, he
fought off prostrate cancer, and emerged as one of the business leaders
of our time, even winning Time's Man of the Year award in 1999. To
many, Andy was the Michael Jordan of the business world. See Amazon

I came to Intel in 1992 from BusinessWeek partly drawn by the lure of Intel's powerful leader...I'd read perhaps a dozen articles and was drawn by his vision, and the rising star of Intel. (see posting on my life at Intel).

Alas, my first assignment was supposed to be writing Newsweek advertorials for Andy...but the project vaporized before I got my family to town. "Better create something else," my boss said. It was my introduction to the technology industry and Intel--fleeting, uncertain, ever-changing (This sure wasn't Kansas, or Texas..)

It was a fascinating ride for me. But in the end I came away with mixed feelings about Intel.

In many ways it was pretty ruthless, a Darwinian company where you
were on your own. (I was laid off in 2001 and 10,500 more are on the
way out this month. When the company needs to shed costs, or bodies, it
doesn't hesitate. See Intel Layoffs.)

Still, I always had admiration for Andy, and his predecessor, Gordon Moore.

So now Carly's weighed into the ever mushrooming HP debacle, this time with her new book, Tough Choices. The San Jose Mercury News carried a story about the 309-page book at the top of the front page today Mercury News Review How many books get this kind of publicity? And could Carly's timing have been any better with the pretexting corporate spying scandal still simmering, and the chairman of HP's board being hit with criminal charges this week?

Tough Choices, to be released next week by Penquin,describes a weak-kneed, dysfuntional board that couldn't make decisions, and refused to face up to reality. Lew Platt, for one, was picked out to be heavy handed and ruled HP pre-Carly like a sort of bull in a china shop. Other board members were said to be petty, agenda-driven, cowardly, and worse.

Carly's $21 million severance package must have eased the pain a little. She, of course, comes off like a misunderstood heroine, out to reshape and save an aging company that badly needed new direction. The board was too dense to get it, and turned on her wickedly, firing her prematurely, she claims.

``I was deeply sad that fellow board members I had known and trusted
would not pay me the simple respect of looking me in the eye and
telling me the truth. I felt betrayed.''

There's a lot more to the book than this, going back to her childhood days..but most of the press is focused on the parts that might shine new light on HP's messy scandal and a board-driven investigation gone awry. Carly even showed up on the evening news this week, an excerpt from this weekend's 60 Minutes TV show, saying she was shocked that HP launched such a bizarre investigation. But turns out she launched her own investigation when the board was leaking info to the press during her reign, asking HP's legal counsel to get to the bottom of it. Guess some investigations are ok.

The book doesn't have any lightning rod discoveries--most of the world already knows this is not a harmonious board, that Carly and the board clashed, that the Compaq merger divided the company and so on. But it does fill in a few holes left from earlier books on the merger battle--Backfire by Peter Burrows and Perfect Enough by George Anders (both excellent books). Silicon Valley soap operas don't get much better than this.

Be sure to tune into 60 Minutes Sunday.

Meanwhile, this adds to the tidal wave of weird publicity for HP, a company once known for being buttoned down and cautious by Silicon Valley standards. 2007 can't come soon enough for Mark Hurd.

Never Eat Alone--a great title--is about getting connected to the right people, a take no prisoners approach to developing relationships that pay off. Think of it as sort of networking book on steroids.

There's a lot of content here, but it boils down to a few principles:

* Be brave and get outside your comfort zone. You're not going to go anywhere if you don't break out and try something new (example: the author's big on throwing well targeted dinner parties). Don't fear making mistakes--or even making a fool of yourself.

* Be creative/paint outside the lines. No idea is too bold, it seems, when it comes to connecting with big shots (example: find people at conferences and set up your own private dinners...or arrive at event where they're speaking; stand by the door or key entrances, and "be ready to introduce yourself."

* Make connecting part of your everyday life.

* Focus on your strengths and value: "Forget your job title...figure out what exceptional expertise you're going to master that will provide real value to your network and your company."

* Develop a niche--and focus on it relentlessly. Be persistent and committed.

The book delves into typical networking stuff (mastering small talk), but goes beyond that. It discusses how to find a mentor, and how to really work a conference (for example, setting up your own personal tours and inviting special "guests" you want to connect to). It also focuses on developing unique content and UPV (unique point of view) that will separate you from the pack. How author Keith Ferrazzi leverages the content (page #213) is one of the strongest parts of the book.

A lot of the book is told through his personal narrative: how he came up from a lower class family, somehow made it to Harvard Business School and on to a big-name consulting firm (Deloitte & Touche). Then it was off to success-land with his YaYa software company, where he learned the art of managing the media and image building, often with slick marketing and PR tricks. It's all pretty breezy, easy to read and interesting in terms of guerilla marketing techniques. His section on connecting with journalists is a good primer for media newbies in the business world.

Sometimes a book comes along at just the right time. I'd say that describes Naked Conversations, a good read and a great snapshot of the current blogosphere. It's co-written by Microsoft techno-evangelist and blogging legend Robert Scoble and former PR consultant turned blogging expert Shel Israel. A bit breathless at times in its rush to proclaim the victory of the
blog, it makes up for it with some solid case studies, interviews and statistics. A good example is page #108, "Parallel Evolutions," where they interview PR veteran Shel Holtz, who has curtailed his traditional PR practices to move online. He warns about overrating blogs by themselves as Gutenberg-like inventions, instead looking at them as an extension of a bigger revolution. Example: he sees a blog as an extension of his long-running subscription based newsletter.